Join artists Tanya Aguiñiga and Katie Stout in conversation with Michelle Millar Fisher, Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
How are the extremely personal and unique aesthetics of these two contemporary makers shaped? Who are their influences, and what is their relationship to the words "craft," "art" and "design"? Join us for a discussion about communities, generations, and inheritance.
Hosted by James Zemaitis, Director of Museum Relations, R & Company.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
Tanya Aguiñiga is based in Los Angeles and uses craft as a performative medium to generate dialogues about identity, culture, and gender. She often circles back to formative experiences, like attending school in America, while living in Mexico, and employs expressive materials in her work, including charred wood, natural fibers, and human hair. Her work is included in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA, the Museum of Arts and Design, NY, and The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, TX.
Katie Stout lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, and holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. She describes her work as “naïve pop,” a caricaturization of furniture as it is traditionally understood and of the motifs of suburban domestic life. She utilizes a diverse range of media and often unexpected techniques. Her expansive body of work includes lighting, seating, shelving, mirrors, carpets, and curtains. Her career to date boasts an impressive array of highlights, including a furniture collaboration with Bjarne Melgaard for his installation at the 2014 Whitney Biennial, her fantastical Bedroom Curio exhibition at Design Miami 2015, and winning the first season of HGTV’s series Ellen’s Design Challenge in 2015. Her work has been featured in the Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara’s 2017 exhibition “Free Play,” and the Dallas Museum of Art’s 2019 exhibition “Women + Design: New Works” and is in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Dallas Museum of Art and Museum of Arts and Design.
Michelle Millar Fisher is the Ronald C. and Anita L. Wornick Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Hailing from Scotland, Fisher has worked as an educator, curator, and historian in universities and museums including the Museum of Modern Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Guggenheim. Her work focuses on the intersections of people, power, design, and craft. She has co-authored many books, essays, and exhibitions including Designing Motherhood and Items: Is Fashion Modern?